Typically, blowers for gas and electric downdraft cooktop applications rely on blower dilution air for cooling. There is a significant issue with utilizing dilution air from the blower motor as an intake for cooling the motor since system resistance can result in reversing the motor which expels grease laden air into the cooking environment. Due to insufficient blower performance, a known commercial solution is to use a separate blower for a gas cooking unit and a separate blower for an electric cooking unit associated with the same stove because of insufficient blower performance. In addition, it is important for a blower to be able to pass the Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (“UL”) Articulated Finger Probe Test, which was designed to consider accessibility by small children, as well as the UL Knife Probe Test to determine human access to moving or rotating parts.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.